photo by: LMH Health

LMH Health, 325 Maine St., is pictured in May 2021.

About a month after LMH Health formed a strategic clinical relationship with the University of Kansas Health System, the two entities have announced a new health care collaboration dedicated to sports medicine.

The program, dubbed Kansas Sports Medicine, is intended to provide care to athletes of all ages and skill levels, according to a news release from LMH Health on Tuesday afternoon. It will be a joint effort from LMH’s OrthoKansas team and the KU Health System’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine staff.

“This collaboration allows us to continue delivering expert orthopedic care that focuses on the special needs and training requirements of competitive athletes of all ages and experience levels,” LMH Health President and CEO Russ Johnson said in the release.

The release named six physicians with LMH and the KU Health System who would be part of the program, and it said the partnership would involve surgeons, therapists and other clinicians working together to help injured athletes return to their pre-injury performance levels.

This collaboration isn’t a surprise: Johnson told the Journal-World last month that this program was already in the works. He also said last month that this would be the first collaborative program to come as a result of the partnership with the KU Health System, and that other ideas were still in the works.

According to a new website for the program, LMH and the KU Health System plan to offer services in two locations — at LMH’s West Campus, 6265 Rock Chalk Drive, and at Watkins Health Services, 1200 Schwegler Drive on the University of Kansas’ Lawrence campus.

Most appointments with Kansas Sports Medicine staff will occur at LMH Health West, according to the release, but KU students, staff and faculty can get orthopedic evaluations and treatments at Watkins.

The release also says LMH Health and the KU Health System already have a few years of experience providing this kind of care on the KU campus; the two entities have partnered as Kansas Team Health to provide care for KU’s student-athletes since 2019.